Can candidates use Microsoft Office to achieve their INGOTs?
Yes, INGOTs are designed to be independent of particular software applications. We want to encourage the use of Free and Open Source Software as part of our inclusion policy but we accept that the practicalities of doing this will vary in different circumstances. All aspects of the certificates can be assessed with popular Open Source applications and where we provide optional support, courses and other materials, they will generally employ open source applications, open data and open information. Our starting point is for our own systems to be as fully Open as possible. The whole INGOT infrastructure including the production of handbook and certificates has been done entirely with free, open source software. This does not mean that candidates can’t use proprietary applications, they certainly can. The only requirement is to be able to match the criteria. In practice, OpenOffice.org, Star Office and MS Office are very similar and principles transfer to tools such as Google Docs so it d
